Focus shifting from growth to economic development, services

CARLSBAD  Carlsbad’s new city manager is counting his blessings, helping to lead what he calls one of the best cities in the world.

“I tell all my family that if it gets any better than this, I don’t need to know about it,” John W. Coates said Wednesday in his office at City Hall.

A self-described “outdoor enthusiast,” Coates, 56, said Carlsbad is ideal for someone like him who likes to mountain bike, road bike, hike, camp, swim and surf.

The City Council announced last month that it had selected Coates for the city manager post, then officially approved his selection in a unanimous vote Tuesday night.

He had been assistant city manager since July 2010 and interim city manager since November. He, his wife and their two children — one now 23 and the other almost 25 — moved to California from Virginia in 2002 when he took a job as community services director of Santee.

Mayor Matt Hall said Thursday that the City Council decided Coates is “the right person at the right time to lead the city.”

“We looked at John and John’s skill set ... as taking us into the future,” Hall said.

Coates said Wednesday that the new job is “the capstone” of his 30-year career in municipal government. Much of that career has been in parks and recreation services.

In his off time, he often cycles and surfs, he said. He does occasional “centuries,” or 100-mile bike rides, and once rode from Santa Barbara to San Diego County. His favorite North County surf spots are Cardiff Reef and Swami’s near his home in Encinitas, and more recently Terramar just south of the power plant in Carlsbad.

As Carlsbad’s top administrator, Coates is responsible for 700 municipal employees in a city of 106,000 people.

He compared his job as city manager with that of the chief executive officer of a large conglomerate.

“The City Council develops the policy, and the city manager implements it,” he said, and it’s clear that he has heard the council’s oft-repeated mantra of making Carlsbad “a world-class city.”

He already has announced some administrative changes, such as the consolidation of the city’s 12 major department heads into seven.

Still, he said, much of the groundwork has been laid for a world-class city.

“Our predecessors were careful,” he said. “They thought and planned this community.”

He pointed out that they safeguarded the city’s beaches and three lagoons, laid out nearly 50 miles of hiking and biking trails, and set aside 40 percent of the city’s land as permanent open space.

“We are maturing as a city,” Coates said. Most of the big development is finished, and the focus is shifting from growth and into economic development and the maintenance of public services such as streets and parks.

Among the challenges ahead are to diversify the city’s businesses, grow its tax base, and revitalize the downtown business community, he said.

One growing pain the city still faces is the three years expected to build the Poseidon desalination plant, next to the Encina power plant on Carlsbad Boulevard

That project includes a 10-mile west-to-east pipeline, 7.8 miles of which will be built through Carlsbad, to connect the plant to the County Water Authority’s distribution line.

The 54-inch-diameter pipeline will cross a number of streets and thoroughfares, where traffic is certain to be delayed during construction. The payoff will be a new source of drinking water independent of the imported water that all of Southern California relies on.

Coates said the favorite part of his job is seeing the difference that city government can make in the community. His success can be measured in services at the city’s libraries, maintenance of public streets and swim lessons at the community pool, he said.

“My job affects the average citizen in a variety of ways on a daily basis,” he said.